Method and system for object age detection in garbage collection heaps

ABSTRACT

A system and method are provided for object age detection in garbage collection heaps. In one embodiment, ages of objects in a garbage collection heap at a first virtual machine at a server are determined by detecting a number of garbage collections each object has survived. An age is associated to each object according to the determined ages. The objects are grouped in age ranges, wherein the age ranges correspond to the determined ages. The age ranges are communicated to a second virtual machine at a client.

FIELD

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, the embodiments of the invention relate to detection of object ages in garbage collection heaps.

BACKGROUND

A memory on any computing system is a limited resource. No matter how fast computing systems become, they always depend upon a finite amount of memory in which to run their software applications. As a result, software developers should consider this resource when writing and developing software applications.

The Java programming language differs from many traditional programming languages (e.g., C, C++) by the way in which memory is allocated and deallocated. In languages like C and C++, memory is explicitly allocated and deallocated by the application programmer/developer. This can greatly increase the time spent by programmers in tracking down coding defects in regards to deallocating memory. The Java programming language presents several features that appeal to developers of large-scale distributed systems, such as “write once, run anywhere” portability, portable support for multithreaded programming, support for distributed programming, including remote method invocation, garbage collection, and an appealing object model have encouraged Java use for systems with a size and complexity far beyond small applets. However, the developers of these applications often encounter problems, such as memory leaks, performance and scalability problems, synchronization problems, and programming errors.

Java runtime environments (e.g., Java virtual machine) provide a built-in mechanism for allocating and deallocating memory. In Java, memory is allocated to objects. The Java virtual machine (“VM” or “JVM”) automatically handles the amount and allocation of memory upon an object's creation. The Java runtime environment employs a “garbage collector” (GC) to reclaim the memory allocated to an object that is no longer needed. Once the GC determines that the object is no longer accessible (e.g., when there is no longer any references to it stored in any variables, the fields of objects, or the elements of any arrays, etc.), it reclaims the allocated memory. When objects in a Java application are no longer referenced, the heap space the object occupied is to be recycled so that the space becomes available for subsequently-created objects.

Although having garbage collection improves productivity, it is not entirely immune from a class of bugs, called “memory leaks.” A memory leak can occur when a program (or in the case of Java, the VM) allocates memory to an object but never (or only partially) deallocates the memory when the object is no longer needed. As a result, a continually increasing block of memory may be allocated to the object, eventually resulting in an “Out Of Memory Error” (OOME). In other words, a memory leak occurs when memory is allocated, but it is never (or only partially) reclaimed. Memory leaks can also occur when a data structure (e.g., hashtable) is used to associated one object with another and even when neither object is required any longer, the association with the data structure remains, preventing the objects from being reclaims until the data structure is reclaimed. Stated differently, when a lifetime of the data structure is longer than that of the objects associated with it, memory leaks are caused.

Memory leaks are of particular concern on Java-based systems (e.g., Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platforms) which are to run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In this case, memory leaks, even seemingly insignificant ones, can become a major problem. Even the smallest memory leak in code that runs 24/7 may eventually cause an OOME, which can bring down the VM and its applications or even all VMs running on a particular application server instance. This can cause critical performance problems.

It is generally preferred to profile memory use and debug memory leaks in an application code in the early stages of development to provide an early detection of memory problems long before the production stage. Although garbage collection makes code much safer, because having the developer to explicitly delete objects from memory is prone to human error, garbage collection is not a panacea. For example, if the developer does not manage the references to the Java objects carefully, it can result in a memory leak problem, such as a reference to an object is stored within an instance or class field, this reference may exist throughout the life of the application and, unless desired, is regarded a memory leak.

Within a distributed application server environment having thousand of concurrent users, performance and scalability problems are typical. The causes of problems are various, such as synchronization problems, extensive access to shared resources (e.g., database systems), bad configuration settings, etc. To provide consistency within such a system, locks with various validity scopes (e.g., VM-local, application-server-wide, and system-wide) are used; however, deadlock situations and synchronization problems exist.

Several performance monitoring, profiling, and debugging tools are used to examine software applications to determine resource consumption within the Java runtime environment (JRE). For example, a profiling tool may identify the most frequently executed methods and objects created in an application. A type of software performance and debugging tool is a “tracer.” However, such tools are very limited in detecting and exposing system inefficiencies and problems (e.g., memory leaks), while consuming great amounts of system resources by requiring overhead tasks, such as starting and restarting of VMs in special modes. Further, such tools are also limited in providing necessary information about system problems and the limited information that these tools may provide is not useful for applications comprising several thousand objects. This leaves developers with often insurmountable amounts of code to manually evaluate to track down the problem objects/variables, such as the specific class, method calls, etc. For example, conventional profiling tools, like Optimizelt and JProbe, when used, require restarting of VMs and servers, which results in loss of production and system resources, particularly when restarting a productive system. Moreover, the starting of a server and its VMs further adds to the system overhead by increasing memory consumption, which also harms the normal work of the server and server software. The restarting of the server adds overhead in regards to the Central Processing Unit (CPU), as the server would have to start up from scratch.

No conventional methods and systems provide for age detection of objects. When profiling an application in a VM for memory leaks in a programming language (e.g., Java) that employs garbage collection, knowing the age of an object can be of great assistance, since memory leaks lead to objects that are never or only partially reclaimed. However, none of the conventional ways provide for age detection of such objects or to put these objects in specific age ranges.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional profiling tool. Client 102 is in communication with server 108. Client 102 includes a VM 102. Server 108 includes a VM 112, which includes Java Virtual Machine Profiling Interface (JVMPI)-based interface 116 and implementation 114. Server 108 further includes a native/default profiling agent (having an agent library) 110 which is plugged into the VM 112 at start-up. Since JVMPI is a native/default-interface, the agent 110 is also written in native code. An agent 110 refers to a software entity, which is used to gather profiling information native VM interfaces (e.g., JVMPI). JVMPI-based implementation 114 suffers from high memory footprints and, like conventional tools JProbe and Wily Introscope, requires a VM restart. However, conventional profiling tools (e.g., also those using Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface (JVMTI)) cannot be used in productive systems without disturbing user sessions. Further, they cannot be used in large application server environments as they cause high memory consumption. Referring back to FIG. 1, for example, to start profiling traces, the VM 112 is to be restarted in special way, such as by having the agent 110 loaded at VM-startup, which can cause negative impact on performance and memory consumption. There are merely some of the limitations of conventional profiling solutions. Similarly, conventional monitoring tools and debugging tools (e.g., using Java Virtual Machine Debugging Interface (JVMDI)) also suffer from these and additional limitations.

SUMMARY

A system and method are provided for object age detection in garbage collection heaps. In one embodiment, ages of objects in a garbage collection heap at a first virtual machine at a server are determined by detecting a number of garbage collections each object has survived. An age is associated to each object according to the determined ages. The objects are grouped in age ranges, wherein the age ranges correspond to the determined ages. The age ranges are communicated to a second virtual machine at a client.

The above attributes may be implemented using a computer program, a method, a system or apparatus, or any combination of computer programs, methods, or systems. These and other details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and in the description below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at least one.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional profiling tool.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a server having an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a backend VM having an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a process for profiling using an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure.

FIGS. 5A-F illustrate an embodiment of object age detection in garbage collection heaps.

FIG. 6 illustrates a mechanism for object age detection in garbage collection heaps.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a transaction sequence for detecting object age in garbage collection heaps

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a process for object age detection in garbage collection heaps.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a process for detecting object age of an object in a heap.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a monitoring tool.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a computing system.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a client/server network system employing a message enhancement mechanism.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, references to one or more “embodiments” are understood as describing a particular feature, structure, or characteristic included in at least one implementation of the invention. Thus, phrases such as “in one embodiment” or “in an alternate embodiment” appearing herein describe various embodiments and implementations of the invention, and do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. However, they are also not necessarily mutually exclusive. Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein.

Java applications can vary in both size and complexity. In addition, certain large Java application (e.g., ˜10,000 classes and ˜1,000,000 methods with ˜100,000,000 method calls) may run 24/7 (“long living” applications). Within a long living application, major problems (e.g., memory leaks) are expected to occur in terms of both stability and performance. For example, a single long living object that increases in size by 1 byte between each GC cycle will eventually cause the application and VM to crash due to an OOME. Although such a crash may take a long time (e.g., 1 bytes per GC cycle * millions of free bytes of memory), it will inevitably occur. Furthermore, when dealing with such long applications and productive systems, mere use of commercial and non-commercial conventional profiling tools and debugging tools having JVMPI and JVMTI profiling interfaces and JVMDI debugging interface, respectively, are not suitable and cannot provide the necessary profiling, debugging, and monitoring information. Even when dealing with suitable systems, such conventional tools cause high memory footprints and are not effective without having to restart the VM and are known to disturb user sessions inherent to the VM.

In one embodiment, a vendor-specific proprietary interface and implementation are provided, as described throughout this document (e.g., see FIG. 1). This implementation can be made an integral part of a VM (e.g., JVM, SAP JVM) and allow for on-demand examining of system problems, including in productive systems, without restarting the underlying VM. These system problems can range anywhere from memory leaks to performance, scalability and synchronization problems. In one embodiment, “on-demand” refers to examining (e.g., profiling, tracing, debugging, and/or monitoring) system problems in runtime, such as without the need for restarting the underlying VM.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a server 202 having an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure 208. Sever 202 comprises a backend VM 206 (e.g., JVM, SAP JVM) having an embodiment of an on-demand profiling framework or infrastructure (profiling infrastructure) 208. Profiling infrastructure 208 is shown in communication with a server Java application programming interface (API) 204. In one embodiment, profiling infrastructure 208 is implemented as an intrinsic and direct part of the underlying VM 206 and is embedded within the backend VM 206, rather than relying on native profiling interfaces, such as JVMTI and JVMPI, and agent, for implementation. Since the profiling infrastructure 208 is an intrinsic part of the backend VM 206, no additional memory overhead is needed. Java API 204 allows for starting and stopping of the profiling backend VM 206. In one embodiment, backend VM 206 (e.g., Java VM) resides at server 202 (e.g., J2EE server).

In one embodiment, profiling is performed using profiling infrastructure 208 that resides at backend VM 206 that is being profiled. Profiling infrastructure 208 includes a number of components (as described in FIG. 3) to perform trace profiling. In one embodiment, using profiling infrastructure 208, no default profiling agent or default implementations and instances (e.g., JVMPI, JVMTI) are needed or employed. Without having the default agent employed, a direct communication is established between backend VM 206 and frontend VM 214 via server Java API 204 and client Java API 212 and profiling protocol 210. Any number of VMs may be used as backend or frontend VMs. Furthermore, when performing profiling trace in an offline profiling mode, an external profiling file 218 is used to store profiling trace data. Starting and stopping of profiling trace may be performed in a number of ways, such as using a Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based monitoring tool 220. The profiling data is written using various components of profiling infrastructure 208 and displayed to the user using any number of display devices. These display devices may include GUI-based display devices. In one embodiment, using profiling infrastructure 208, on-demand profiling is performed which refers to performing the profiling without restarting the underlying VM 206. Stated differently, the profiling is performed in runtime without any interruptions or restarting of the underlying VM 206.

Profiling infrastructure 208 can be used for starting profiling traces for certain users or applications, such as using profiling annotations. Profiling annotations refer to a concept of tagging threads with certain semantic information from an application server environment. Here, Java API 204 is provided which allows for annotating a Java thread with one or more of the following information: user name, application name, request identifier, and session identifier. If profiling traces are started, a thread filter for such information is provided and thus, a profiling trace can be started only a certain user or application. A Java API is also provided on the client-side, such as client Java API 212, that communication with server Java API 204 via a profiling protocol 210. Client 216 includes frontend VM 214, which includes any arbitrary VM that represents a native application that speaks (e.g., in case of online profiling) the profiling protocol 210 and/or knows (e.g., in case of offline profiling) the profiling file format of profiling file 218. Backend VM 206 is the one that is being profiled.

It is to be noted that the VMs 206, 214 may not be VMs and instead be any program or application (e.g., a native application or program) that is compatible with the components of and related to the profiling infrastructure 208. For example, the frontend VM 214 is illustrated here merely as an example for brevity and clarity. It is, however, contemplated that a frontend VM 214 or any VM for that matter is not necessary for embodiments of the present invention. For example, in one embodiment, instead of employing a VM 214, any program or application that is compatible with the mechanisms and components described herein is acceptable and functional and can be employed and implemented. Stated differently, for example, any program that can read and speak the described components (e.g., components of profiling infrastructure 208), protocols (e.g., socket communication protocol), APIs (e.g., server- and client-side APIs 204, 212), parameters, profiling files 218, etc., is compatible and can be used instead of a VM, such as the frontend VM 214. This is applicable throughout this document wherever there is mention of a VM 206, 214.

The illustrated mechanism 200 provides both an online mechanism for (interactive) profiling and an offline mechanism for (non-interactive) profiling. When starting profiling the backend VM 206, any profiling parameters including the desired mode, e.g., an online or offline mode, are specified. If started in the online mode, the profiling backend VM 206 opens a port and waits for a connection. The profiling frontend VM 214 attach to this connection via the profiling protocol 210 and Java APIs 204, 212. The starting, running, and stopping of profiling and tracing is then performed. In one embodiment, online profiling is performed via internal components, such as Java APIs 204, 212, or external components, such as a monitoring tool (e.g., Java VM monitor) 220. Online profiling may also be performed using a command line, such as java−agentlib:jdwp,transport=dt_socket, address=8000,suspend=n or bin\java−monjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8000,server=y. For the offline mode, profiling files 218 are used to store profiling data and a special interface is provided to couple the backend VM 206 with the frontend VM 214 via client Java API 212 to allow for starting and stopping of traces. In some cases, server Java API 204 can also be used to perform offline profiling. Offline profiling may also be performed using monitoring tool 220 and/or using a command line, such as java −XX:+Profiling−XX:+ProfilingAlloationTrace.

When the profiling mechanism 200 is started in the offline or non-interactive mode, the profiling information is stored in an external medium 218 (e.g., file system) and can be analyzed after the profiling run. This way, the profiling information may then be used for port-mortem analysis; however, traces can still be started and stopped in an interactive manner. In contrast, the online or interactive mode allows for analyzing the profiling information online. For example, if a class statistic trace has been enabled and a garbage collection happens, the profiling information can be directly accessible through a stream-based interface.

Furthermore, to have no performance degradation in case of running in a non-profiling mode (e.g., when no profiling is being performed), VM 206 may maintain a global flag indicating whether profiling is enabled or not. The flag may be requested each time any profiling data is written. For example, a profiling trace for garbage collection events may be implemented in the following way: when a garbage collection is performed, the global profiling flag is checked. If profiling is enabled,; the flag is checked to indicate whether garbage collection events are to be profiled. This can also be done via some VM global flags. If the garbage collection trace is enabled, the backend VM 206 may be called to collect the desired data.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a backend VM 206 having an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure 208. In one embodiment, profiling infrastructure 208 contains controller framework 302, thread filter 304, buffer framework 306, class filter 308, identification service 310, communication framework 312, object identification service 314, allocation trace module 316, loitering trace module 318, garbage collection trace module 320, and other trace modules 322 to perform other traces.

In one embodiment, profiling controller framework 302 is used for starting and stopping profiling runs and traces. Controller framework 302 allows the user to specify profiling options or settings that the user would want to enable. These profiling settings to be applied are divided into distinct areas, such as functional profiling settings and filter settings. The functional profiling settings determine the area to be profiled (e.g., allocation trace, reference trace, etc.), while the filter settings define the validity scope (e.g., user, session, thread, VM, etc.) of the functional profiling settings. For example, an allocation trace can be started for a specified user. Java API and graphical user interface (GUI) are provided in communication with profiling controller framework 302. GUI is used to enable the user to directly specify the desired profiling settings without any system-guidance. Additionally, a wizard-similar interface is provided. GUI also allows for an expert mode and for a wizard-guided mode. Controller framework 302 may include a profiling evaluation module for analyzing a performed profiling run. For example, the Java API can be used for getting the complete low-level profiling information gathered within a corresponding profiling run as well as for getting condensed, problem-oriented profiling information. The condensed profiling information may be used to directly pinpoint various problematic areas. For example, if the user has performed performance analysis using a time-based sampling approach, the Java API may enable a client to directly receive information about the time-consuming methods. The user may view this information via GUI at a display device at the client.

Controller framework 302 is used for starting and stopping profiling runs and traces, which includes starting and stopping various profiling options (further described later). For each profiling run the user is free to determine the set of traces to be started. For example, the user may start an allocation trace using the allocation trace module 316 together with a class statistic trace. A user-defined name may be assigned to each non-interactive profiling run and used later on to evaluate the gathered profiling information. Considering interactive profiling runs, the user is able to evaluate the profiling information online and therefore, the profiling information may be available through a stream-based interface.

Furthermore, controller framework 302 may be independent of the surrounding application server environment. Stated differently, controller framework 302 refers to the underlying VM 206 currently executing a profiling request (e.g., starting an allocation trace). The corresponding application server infrastructure may be responsible for starting and stopping the desired trace on other VMs. For example, if an allocation trace is started for a certain user session at VM 208, the application server infrastructure accounts for starting the allocation trace in the VMs executing requests for the user session. Controller framework 302 enables the application server infrastructure to specify thread filters 304. A thread filter 304 may contain the following information: client, user, session identifier, request identifier, application name, and component name. On the one hand, controller framework 302 may provide a facility to tag these pieces of information to a thread. On the other hand, if a certain profiling run is to be started, a thread filter 304 is provided. Hence, for example, a trace may be stared only for a certain user. Accordingly, the application server is responsible for setting the current thread state (e.g., client, user, session identifier, etc.). In one embodiment, an application server includes a J2EE server.

In one embodiment, the profiling options include functions/cases, such as memory debugging (e.g., memory leak detection), performance analysis, synchronization monitoring, and application debugging (e.g., detecting called methods). These profiling functions further include a number of sub-functions, such as heap dump, coupling of debugging and profiling infrastructure, time-based sampling, memory-based sampling, method statistic, allocation trace, silent allocation trace, allocation statistic trace, loitering trace, garbage collection trace, garbage collection statistic, class statistic trace, permanent generation statistic trace, local garbage collection trace, shared garbage collection statistic, other traces, such as reference trace, object death trace, object movement trace, shared closure trace, global reference trace, method trace, time method trace, input/output (I/O) trace, monitor trace, shared lock trace, method count trace, execution line trace, scheduler trace, and exception trace.

Solving a memory leak problem may include a couple of processes, such as identifying the Java classes or objects caused the memory leak, and determining where in the infrastructure or application code the leak occurred. Many of the sub functions can be used to solve memory leak problems. Class statistic trace functionality is provided to help identify the Java classes that cause memory leaks. Class statistic trace includes getting an overview of all living classes within particular VM, including class name, class loader description, the number of object instances, and the accumulated net and gross size of all object instances. The information may be traced after each full local garbage collection. Reference trace includes detecting the objects holding references to leaking objects. It also provides the complete reference chain to a specific object instance. This information may also be available after one full local garbage collection.

If the class statistic trace reveals that specific objects are created over and over again, using the allocation trace module 316, the allocation trace may be enabled to check for the exact allocation place. Using the allocation trace module 316, the allocation trace enables the user to specify a class filter 308. Silent allocation trace is a derivate of allocation trace. When an allocation trace is started, each object, which is allocated and adheres to a user-defined class filter 308, is assigned to an object identifier. Although the allocation trace enables the user to get informed about object allocations, the user may not get the information when the corresponding object dies. In that case, object death trace allows the user to check for those objects are garbage collected and no longer alive. Object movement trace makes allows the checking of why certain objects are kept alive, while the allocation trace allows for getting information when certain objects are created.

Shared closure trace provides for getting object information each time shared closures are created, deleted, copied or mapped. Global references may be used across multiple invocations of a Java Native Interface (JNI) method and also across multiple threads. A global reference remains valid until it is freed by the programmer and ensures that the referenced object is not garbage collected. For relatively complex scenarios, a dump of the current Java heap is performed. The heap dump function allows for getting a dump of the current, overall object state.

In some cases, memory leaks occur due to the fact that a failed clean-up operation. For example, considering a cache based on shared closures, at regular intervals, the cache might be cleared. If the clean-up operation were interrupted at the end of the operation (e.g., due to a VM abort exception), most cache entries would probably be deleted; however, some entries might still exist. Thus, a memory leak may be resulted if the cache were not able to remove any of the existing entries. The detection of this kind of memory leak could be difficult, since most object instances of the corresponding class are removed and merely a few exist. Thus, class statistic trace may not be the right choice to detect such a memory leak. One characteristic of this problem is that the memory leak is caused by objects which may not be used any longer. The loitering trace performed via loitering trace module 318 facilitates the detection of objects which are not used for a long time.

Various performance problems may be caused by any number of reasons, such as choosing the wrong algorithm for a problem, repeatedly recalculating the same result, excessive allocating of temporary objects, too many I/O operations or transferring too much memory, etc. Profiling helps improving the performance by determining what is it that is to be optimized. Profiling identifies parts of the overall system for which optimization can have an impact on the overall performance. Optimizing a function which only amounts to a miniscule fraction of the overall runtime may not have noticeable benefits. Profiling also determines how the optimization is to be done. Checking for optimization options of those parts that are identified during the first process. Time-based sampling is used to get an overview of methods, which consume the most CPU resources of the application. Time-based sampling works by dumping a stack trace of the currently active thread at regular intervals. Memory-based sampling works analogously to the time-base sampling; however instead of dumping a stack trace in time intervals (Δt), stack trace is sampled after an amount of memory (ΔM) is allocated on the Java heap. This way, those methods that allocate the largest number of bytes on the Java heap are identified.

When time-based sampling shows that a method uses a large amount of time, the reason for this resource consumption might be that a call of the method is expensive or the method is called very often. To find out how many times a particular method was called, method statistic trace may be used. Together with time-based sampling, method statistic trace may also allow for calculating the average runtime of a specific method (e.g., the “cumulative time” divided by the method count). Method trace is used to get more detailed information than method statistic. Time method trace can be used to provide very detailed trace information. Time method trace provides for detecting method calls that (for any number of reasons) take a particularly long time. To see, if garbage collection is properly configured or if a particular problem related to garbage collection exists, local GC statistic is used, which includes dumping a statistical entry for each local garbage collection (partial and full) for each garbage collection run. Shared GC statistic is emitted when a local GC detects that a shared GC has happened and has not been dumped yet. The shared GC statistic contains the number and size of the collected shared classes, shared interned strings, and shared classes.

Another source of performance problems is related to I/O. These I/O-related problems include a network connection being operated at its bandwidth maximum, the latency being too high, an external system being overloaded, etc. To check for an I/O problem, I/O trace allows for tracing the timing of each I/O operation. I/O trace can be used in analysis to check for operations, where huge amounts of data were transmitted, the I/O operation took an extraordinary amount of time, or a huge amount of small I/O operations was performed.

Java has an explicit support for multithreading and concurrency at the language level. Although these welcome features, the typical problems with multithreading and concurrency are deadlocks, race conditions, thread starvation, and scalability problems. Synchronization monitoring is provided to detect such problems. For example, synchronization monitoring includes monitor trace that identifies deadlock or scalability problems and gathers information about locks used inside a VM. To find synchronization problems, a thread trying to acquire a lock is identified and once it is identified, the lock is freed by the thread. Shared lock trace is used to identify deadlocks between VMs and scalability problems of a server instance. Shared lock trace provides information about different kinds of shared lock activities, like entering and leaving. Further, for such problems above, scheduler trace is used to know why a thread was scheduled and why it gave up control of the CPU, and for how long the entire VM was waiting on external I/O or just sleeping.

In one embodiment, application debugging is used to provide those the debugging functionalities that are not supported by conventional debugging instances and protocols, such as JVMDI, Java Debug Wire Protocol (JDWP), etc. For example, application debugging covers functionalities, such as call coverage and line coverage. Regarding call coverage, method count trace may deliver a number of calls to a method. Regarding line coverage, execution line trace may deliver information about code lines that were executed. Method call trace is used to find all methods that are called. When the method call trace is enabled, the VM 206 counts method calls and when the method call trace is disabled, the VM 206 dumps the collected information, such as name and signature of a method and the number of times it was called. Execution line trace may be used to find out the lines of code that are not executed. When the execution line trace is triggered, it enables the VM to write out information about the method and code line each time a byte code is interpreted and/or the line number changes. Such information can help the developer find out the lines of code that are not covered particular test cases.

Method trace may be employed to trace or profile the debugging process of an application. For example, the method trace is used to find out what has happened before the program reaches a certain point. Such information may be used to trace back the program flow and find out in which way the program reached that point of code. Exception trace is another functionality that may be employed to trace or profile the debugging process of an application. This information can be used to trace back the reasons for exceptions that followed up and for different execution branches.

In one embodiment, a dedicated Java API and a GUI is provided to allow for starting and stopping of various functionalities and uses (e.g., allocation trace, loitering trace, GC trace, and other traces) and for getting the corresponding profiling and tracing results. To determine and analyze the profiling and tracing results, an expert mode and/or a guided mode are provided. For example, a guided mode may directly pinpoint any problem areas.

Profiling infrastructure 208 is compatible with multiple clients. For example, depending on the surrounding application server infrastructure and whether any clients are handled in a special way, the profiling infrastructure 208 may perform in compliance with several clients, simultaneously, and remain multiple client-compliant. Profiling infrastructure 208 also allows for restricting profiling runs to certain clients, while the surrounding application server environment may assure that the current client information is assigned to the respective thread. Furthermore, profiling infrastructure 208 may be started on-demand, which includes performing profiling infrastructure functionalities (e.g., profiling, tracing, etc.) without restarting the entire application server or even the underlying VM 206. If no profiling option is enabled by a certain user, there is no impact on the response time caused by the profiling infrastructure 208. However, if profiling is enabled, it may depend on the started profiling options and filter settings about how the overall system performance is influenced. For example, if a method trace is started on an application server without any filter settings (e.g., user, classes, etc.), the performance may decrease to an extent. Therefore, the profiling infrastructure 208 as well as the application server infrastructure must provide options to restrict profiling runs. This way, profiling may be enabled for a particular user or session, while users and sessions remain unaffected. In addition, profiling infrastructure 208 provides reasonable and necessary filter settings for various profiling traces.

Class filters 308 are implemented to allow for limiting profiling trace outputs by limiting the process of profiling to, for example, specific traces. For example, if a developer seeks to profile only Java object allocations which refer to java.lang.HashMap instances, then, using class filters 308, a profiling allocation trace with a class filter applying exclusively to java.lang.HashMap instances is started. Thread filters 304 relate to profiling annotations (e.g., specifying annotations), such as when an allocation trace exists. Thread filters 304 may also be used by the user to specify when and/or where a trace is to be triggered and/or used. Buffer framework 306 is used to compress and decompress any type of data or information that is being communicated, stored, etc. Communication framework 312 is used to facilitate communication of any data or information between and within various components, elements, modules, systems, servers, VM, etc. Communication framework 312 is also used to determine and facilitate the storing of data or information, such as storing the data using files or socket connections.

ID service 310 is employed to specify variables, such a class, a name of the class, etc. to assign identification to them. Once class, class names, etc. are assigned an ID (e.g., a number), they are then mapped with each other and with various components and variables via a mapping packet, instead of mapping by names. Using ID service 310, the same can be done with threads and methods. For example, by assigning IDs (instead of names) to threads and methods, when dumping is performed, the IDs of threads and methods are dumped rather than their names. This technique of using IDs (e.g., numbers) instead of using the names is efficient, fast, and saves memory.

For example, an allocation event is considered. ID numbers are mapped to various packet names, such as java.Hashtable is mapped to “2000”, the thread (named, “main”) is assigned “3”, and the user (named, “Hansi”) is assigned “7”. Stack trace is then commenced using command lines, such as com.sap.test (line 30), com.sap.submethod (line 2003), etc. The even information may then be provided as 2000, 3, etc. It is known that ID number 2000 was mapped to the underlying hashtable, while ID number 3 was mapped to the thread. Using these ID's, names (e.g., main, Hansi, etc.) are not needed and instead, IDs are used, which provides an easier technique for packet name mapping. Similarly, object ID service 314 is used to assign IDs (e.g., numbers) to objects so the IDs can be used to, for example, identify and compare the objects, instead of using object names.

In one embodiment, profiling information and any other relevant data is displayed at a display device via GUI at a client so that a user can access and evaluate the displayed information. The information may also be stored at a database and/or file system for subsequent retrieval and analysis. Although Java components, such as J2EE server, Java VM, Java heap, and Java memory errors, etc., are discussed here for simplicity and brevity, it should be noted, however, that the underlying principles and embodiments of the present invention may be implemented within any type of object-oriented and runtime environments. Moreover, it should be noted that requirements and examples used in this document do not necessarily reflect the real values that a system or program would actually produce. For example, garbage collection may be invoked multiple times while checking the VM heap memory size, so that there are different VM implementations and, according to a relevant VM specification, a given VM implementation might not clean up the memory immediately after it has been requested to do so. Thus, to be sure that a memory cleanup is provoked, the memory size may be checked and the garbage collection may be invoked again, as necessary.

Garbage collection as described here includes a process designed to identify and reclaim blocks of memory that are dispensed by a memory allocator but are no longer “alive” or “live” (e.g., no longer being used, as determined, for example, by not being reachable from any currently referenced objects or entities). Garbage collection can sometimes be handled as a background task by runtime systems rather than as an explicit task by user programs. Garbage collection can also be handled as an inlined task. Garbage collection can be used to reclaim memory in runtime systems, and there are some well-known garbage collection algorithms (e.g., reference counting, mark-sweep, mark-compact, and copying algorithms).

A VM (e.g., VM 206) is an example of a runtime system. A VM refers to an abstract machine that includes an instruction set, a set of registers, a stack, a heap, and a method area, such as a machine or processor. A VM essentially acts as an interface between program code and the actual processor or hardware platform on which the program code is to be executed. The program code includes instructions from the VM instruction set that manipulates the resources of the VM. The VM executes instructions on the processor or hardware platform on which the VM is running, and manipulates the resources of that processor or hardware platform, so as to effect the instructions of the program code. For example, a Java source program can be compiled into program code, such as bytecode. Bytecode can be executed on a VM, such as JVM, running on any processor or platform. The JVM can either interpret the bytecode one instruction at a time, or the bytecode can be further compiled for the real processor or platform using a just-in-time (JIT) compiler.

The illustrated VM 206 includes a JVM (e.g., SAP JVM), which is used as an example; however, other examples of VMs, which can be used in various embodiments, include Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) language VMs, Common Language Runtime (CLR) VMs, and the like. ABAP is a programming language for developing applications for SAP systems, such as SAP R/3 system, which is a widely installed business application system developed by SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany. The CLR is a managed code execution environment developed by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash. For simplicity and brevity, the discussion in this document focuses on virtual machines, and in particular Java virtual machine 104, but it is to be understood that the techniques described herein can also be used with other types of runtime systems.

A runtime system includes a code execution environment that executes instructions or code in user requests and that provides runtime services for that code. Code runtime services may include functionality, such as process, thread, and memory management (e.g., laying out objects in the server memory, sharing objects, managing references to objects, and garbage collecting objects). Enhanced runtime services may include functionality, such as error handling and establishing security and connectivity.

The illustrated server 202 includes a J2EE server/engine/node, which supports Enterprise Java Bean (“EJB”) components and EJB containers (at the business layer) and Servlets and Java Server Pages (“JSP”) (at the presentation layer). It is understood that processes taught by the discussion above can be practiced within various software environments such as, for example, object-oriented and non-object-oriented programming environments, Java based environments (such as a J2EE environment or environments defined by other releases of the Java standard), other environments (e.g., a .NET environment, a Windows/NT environment each provided by Microsoft Corporation), and the like.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a process for profiling using an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure. At decision block 402, whether profiling need be started is determined. If not, the non-profiling mode is maintained, which saves system resources. If the profiling is to be started, the profiling mechanism is switched to the profiling mode at processing block 408. At decision block 410, a determination is made as to whether online or offline profiling is to be performed. If the profiling is to be performed online, the online profiling mode is triggered for, for example, interactive profiling at processing block 412.

Online profiling is started via Java APIs (e.g., server and client Java APIs), using monitoring tools (e.g., Java VM monitor), and/or using command lines. If the profiling is to be performed offline, the offline profiling mode is triggered for, for example, non-interactive profiling. Offline profiling can also be started using monitoring tools, using command lines, and/or via Java APIs as described above. At processing block 420, any profiling data obtained from offline profiling is stored at an external source, such as a profiling file. The data at the profiling file may be stored in zipped format. At decision block 414, whether the process of profiling be continued is determined. If yes, the profiling continues with decision block 410. If not, the profiling status is switched to the non-profiling mode at processing block 416. This non-profiling mode is maintained at processing block 406.

FIGS. 5A-F illustrate an embodiment of object age detection in garbage collection heaps. When profiling an application for memory leaks in a programming language (e.g. Java) that deploys garbage collection, the age of an object can be of interest, since memory leaks lead to objects that are never or only partially reclaimed. In one embodiment, a mechanism is provided to obtain object age and group the underlying objects in specific age ranges. In one embodiment, using this mechanism, the age of an object is determined by observing a number of garbage collections or garbage collection cycles the object has survived, and the object is continually promoted to an older generation once it has survived a certain number of garbage collections to qualify for it. This technique is useful in detecting memory leaks in programming languages employing garbage collection.

The mark-compact collection scheme is usually employed in the old generations of garbage collection, which includes a property that the order in which the objects are allocated in a generation is directly reflected by their relative position with respect to other objects. In one embodiment, the age of an object is defined in terms of the number of garbage collections it has survived in its corresponding generation, and using this information, the generation is split in regions where merely objects of the same age may reside. During garbage collection, the old region is transformed into a new region. This technique consumes very performance overhead since the new age range can be calculated during the sweep phase, the sweeping of the entire generation is not necessitated and instead, merely sweeping of each age range is performed and then updated. Furthermore, only a small memory overhead is need and merely the start and end pointers of the ranges are to be stored. Using this object age detection, age detection of objects can be performed any number of scenarios, including productive scenarios. Also, to know the age of a given object, an efficient binary search can be employed.

Now referring to heap 500 (e.g., Java heap), several phases of the changing heap 500 are provided for object age detection in one embodiment of the present invention. For example, a mark-compact garbage collection is performed. FIG. 5A illustrates a mark phase, which is the first phase. In the illustrated embodiment, the objects that are still alive 502 are marked with numbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3 . . . 11), while the dead objects 504 are not marked. The phase is then followed by a sweep phase where the heap 500 is traversed linearly and for each marked object 502, its new address is calculated. Then, to ensure that compacting of the heap 500, the following are implemented: (1) a variable (e.g., destAddress) is initialized to the start of the heap 500; (2) the heap 500 is traversed from the start to the end; (3) if a marked object 502 is found, the current variable (e.g., destAddress) is stored in the object and the object's size is added to destAddress.

In the next phase, the compaction of the heap 500 is performed as illustrated in FIG. 5B. As illustrated by arrows 506 where the marked alive objects 502 are copied or moved to the addresses calculated during the sweep phase. For now, the age range 512 is regarded as 0. However, at the end of the sweep phase and the moving process, the heap 500 appears as shown in FIG. 5C with the marked alive objects 502 moved to one end of the heap 500, where the age range 514 now represents age 1. It is to be noted that the relative order of the marked objects 502 is not altered, such as the marked objects 502 are still represented in the order of their illustrated numbers, such as 1, 2, 3, . . . 11. If any new objects are allocated after a garbage collection has occurred, they are allocated as live objects 504 as illustrated in FIG. 5D. Area 508 contains no objects. Next time when a garbage collection happens, objects 502 are raised from age 1 to age 2 516, while objects 504 go from age 0 to age 1 (if they are still alive).

In one embodiment, the objects 502, 504 are grouped in the heap 500 in the order they were allocated in the heap 500. As illustrated in FIG. 5E, this grouping of objects 502 is maintained as they were allocated to the heap to define the age ranges such that the sequences of objects 502 reflect and correspond their age ranges 522-530. A sequence of objects refers to a number of garbage collections the objects in that particular sequence have survived. FIG. 5E illustrates five sequences corresponding to five age ranges 522-530. It is also to be noted that any new objects to be added to heap are to be added in their allocation order so as to maintain the current object order and add to the new objects to follow the current order. Any dead objects are to be removed to maintain the order.

Referring back to FIG. 5E, it presents the classification and grouping of objects 502 according to their ages representing the number of GCs they have survived. For example, objects 532 represent age range 522 surviving more than 3 GCs, while objects 534 represent age rage 524 surviving 3 GCs 524, and similarly, objects 536 represent age range 526 surviving 2 GCs, and objects 538 of age range 528 surviving 1 GC, and finally, objects 540 of age range 530 that have survived 0 GCs. When the heap 500 is collected and the sweep phase is entered, first any dead objects are removed and the rest of the objects are moved to their new age range according to the number of GCs they survive. FIG. 5F reflects that movement.

FIG. 5F illustrates, for example, objects previously marked as 3, 7, 11, 13, 16, 18 and 21 have died and been removed for the heap 500. Here, objects marked 5 and 6 are now represented in age rage 522 of more than 3 GCs because these two objects have now survived at least one more GC, putting them into a new age range 522 of objects 542. Similarly, objects marked 8, 9 and 10 previously of age range 526 of 2 GCs are now in the new age range 524 since they have now survived 3 GCs and are now represented by objects 542. Similarly, objects marked 12, 14, 15 and 17 are now represented by objects 544 in age range 526 of 2 GCs after surviving another GC from previously being in age range 528 of 1 GC. Age range 528 of 1 GC includes objects 546 having objects marked 19, 20 and 22 that have now survived 1 GC and were previously in age range 530 of surviving 0 GC. To determine the age of a specific object, a binary search of the objects addresses in the array of age ranges 522-528 is performed. This binary search results in providing the age of a particular object of objects 502 by showing the object address of the object in one of the age ranges 522-528 which further shows the object age referring to the number of GCs the object has survived. Furthermore, age ranges 522-530 are held in the heap 500 using an age range holder, which includes a module, working with a garbage collector and an embodiment of an on-demand profiling infrastructure provided in the underlying profiling VM at server. The object age detected as provided here is used to detect objects causing memory leaks, such as those objects that are never or only partially reclaimed, so that any memory leaks can be eliminated or significantly reduced, resulting in improved system performance. It is contemplated that the number of objects 502, 504, the number of age rages 522-530, the heap 500, etc., are merely provided here as examples and that these numbers may vary a great deal when dealing with an actual heap, objects, etc.

FIG. 6 illustrates a mechanism 600 for object age detection in garbage collection heaps 606. Heap 606 represents a garbage collection heap (e.g., Java heap), such as heap 500, including various objects that are to be arranged in their corresponding age ranges as illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5F. In one embodiment, server 202 (including an application server, such as a Java application server) includes a VM 206 (e.g., backend VM) having profiling infrastructure 208. The VM 206 further includes a garbage collector to perform garbage collection of objects that are then found in the heap 606. In one embodiment, age range holder 604 is provided to work in communication with garbage collection trace module 320 (not shown here) of the profiling infrastructure 208 to access the heap 606. In one embodiment, age range holder 604 is provided as part of the profiling infrastructure 208 or even as part of the garbage collection trace module, or provided independently and separately.

In one embodiment, the garbage collection trace module, the garbage collector 602, the age range holder 604 are to work together along with other techniques (e.g., mark-sweep technique) to create age ranges and allocate objects in the heap according to their age which represents the number of garbage collections they have survived. For example, garbage collector goes through a heap 606 (e.g., from low to high addresses) and moves live objects (e.g., objects 502, 504 of FIG. 5D) to the heap start. This can be done within the compaction phase and thus, the relative allocation position between objects is maintained. In one embodiment, the higher the number of GCs an object has survived, the older the object and conversely, the fewer the GCs an object has survived, the younger the object. For example, the garbage collector performs garbage collection and dumps the objects in the heap 606, and the age range holder 604 then works with the garbage collector 604, the garbage collection trace module, and other components of the profiling infrastructure 208 to detect such objects in the heap 606 and the number of garbage collections each of the objects has survived. Age range holder 604 includes a data structure holding a set of available age ranges. For each age range, the start address and the end address are stored, while any object removal operations are performed by the garbage collector 602. The garbage collector 602 notifies the age range holder 604 to update the start/end addresses of age ranges. Their It is contemplated that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the terms “young” and “old” and that the objects may be classified and referenced in other ways. Nevertheless, the object age is determined and used to detect objects contributing to memory leaks.

This object age information (e.g., age ranges, object address in the ranges, etc.) is then communicated by the VM 206 at server 202 to a VM 204 (e.g., frontend VM) at client 216 where this information is accessed and viewed by a user (e.g., developer, administrator, programmer, etc.) via a viewer (e.g., GUI-based viewer, Java VM monitor 220 (not shown here), etc.), a display device, and the like. The user may choose to initiate object age detection via the viewer or other such applications at client 216, or the object age detection process may be automatically set to be performed at given intervals, etc.

In one embodiment, age range holder 604 is used to maintain a set of available age ranges and to store the start address and the end address together with the corresponding age for each for each age range. Many of the other functions, such as removing of dead objects, are performed by garbage collector 602. In one embodiment, VM 214 may request to know the age or age range of a specific object in the heap 606. To know the age of the object in the heap 606 (e.g., once the garbage collection has been performed, such as age ranges have already been computed by garbage collector 602 and age range holder 604, dead objects have been removed, etc.), the age range holder 604 checks through the set of age ranges and further checks whether the object address of the object is in a respective age range (e.g., start address <=object address <=end address). In other words, the object address falls between the start address and the end address of a particular age range. If such a match is found, the corresponding age is returned. This information is then communicated by to the requesting VM 214. This linear algorithm can be enhanced by using a binary search variant to look through all available age ranges, which means if an object range is requested, no garbage collection activities are to be performed. This technique can be used to determine the age or age range of a specific object during garbage collection and is them to be communicated back to the requesting VM 214. So, using the object address of an object, the object age of the object can be determined by merely requesting that information from the age range holder 604.

It is contemplated that any references to Java-based components, such as Java application server, Java VMs 206, 214, Java objects, Java heap 500, 606, etc., are provided as examples and that the mechanism 600 and other embodiments of the present invention can also be used with other non-Java-based environments and components. Furthermore, a backend VM 206 may reside at the same J2EE engine as the tree generation module or at another J2EE engine or at another server. A server and a client may include servers and clients similar to server 202 and client 216, respectively, of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a transaction sequence for detecting object age in garbage collection heaps. A garbage collector 602 to start old generation garbage collection (e.g., start detecting the number of GCs already performed and form new age ranges accordingly, etc.) 702. At age range holder 604 of profiling infrastructure 208, a new age range containing those objects that are not already in a range is started 704. Garbage collector 602 to compact the old generation of objects in the heap 706. Any age ranges are updated by removing any dead objects and increasing the age ranges of the remaining living objects 708.

A request for an age of an object in the old generation is received 710 at the age range holder 604 from the profiling infrastructure 208. This request may have been initiated by a user via a client that was then communicated to the profiling infrastructure 208 or generated automatically according to predetermined criteria (e.g., at automatic predetermined intervals). The age range of the object is determined 712 in response to the request at the age range holder 604. The age of the object of the object and the object range in which the object is allocated or grouped into is returned 714 to the profiling infrastructure 208 and then further communicated to the client for the benefit of the user.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a process for object age detection in a garbage collection heaps. At processing block 802, garbage collection objects are accessed in a heap via an age range holder at the underlying VM. The heap includes a garbage collection heap (e.g., Java heap) wherein the garbage collected objects are put by a garbage collector. The age range holder includes a module that may or may not be part of a garbage collection trace module at a profiling infrastructure and may or may not be part of the profiling infrastructure. The age range holder to determine object age by determining a number of garbage collections each object of the objects in the heap has survived at processing block 804. According to the number of GCs survived, each object is assigned an age range (e.g., more than three GCs survived in the range of objects that have survived 3 or more GCs) at processing block 806.

At decision block 808, a determination is made as to whether there are any dead objects in the heap. If yes, the dead objects are removed via the age range holder at processing block 810. Thereafter, or if there are no dead objects, the living objects that are assigned an age range are then sorted into their respective age ranges in a particular order in the heap at processing block 812 such that any new objects that are added or as the existing objects that get old are allocated and/or moved according to when they join the heap and/or as their age progresses (e.g., number of GCs survived). At processing block 814, one or more object ages are communicated to one or more clients as predetermined (e.g., at predetermined intervals) or in response to one or more requests received from the one or more clients via the profiling infrastructure at the underlying profiling VM at server. In one embodiment, a determination is made as to any new objects are to be added. If yes, the new objects are added in order of their allocation to the heap.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a process for detecting object age of an object in a heap. A client places a request to detect objects age of a particular object in a heap. The request may be placed by a user via the client and further via a native application or program (e.g., frontend VM) at the client with the server where the underlying VM (e.g., backend VM or profiling VM) resides. At processing block 902, the object address of the object is known. At processing block 904, age range holder at the underlying VM is queried for the object age of the object. To detect the object age of the object, at decision block 906, a determination is made as to whether the object address falls between the start address and the end address of a selected particular age range (e.g., the next stored age range in the heap). If the condition is true (e.g., the object address of the object is between the start address and the end address of a particular age range), the age range of the object is detected and returned at processing block 908. The age range indicates the age of the object. If, however, the condition is not met (e.g., the object address of the object is not between the start address and the end address of the selected age range), the process continues with selecting the next age range in the heap at processing block 910 to determined whether the object address falls between the start address and the end address of that newly selected age range at decision block 906. If not, age 0 is returned. The age 0 may signify that the object is new and has not gone through any garbage collections.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a monitoring tool 220. The illustrated monitoring tool 220 includes a JVM monitoring tool (e.g., SAP JVM monitoring tool). Monitoring tool 220 includes a menu line 1002 that includes various menu items, such as command, debugging, etc. Monitoring tool 220 further provides a list of VMs 1004, and details about any VM 1006 which includes a number of items, such as performance, VM info, debugging, trace flags, local memory, etc. Monitoring tool 220 further provides shared memory configuration 1008 and shared memory state 1010. Monitoring tool 220 is illustrated merely as an example and the embodiment of the present invention are in no way limited to using the illustrated monitoring tool 220.

Processes taught by the discussion above may be performed with program code, such as machine-executable instructions, which can cause a machine (such as a “virtual machine”, a general-purpose processor disposed on a semiconductor chip, a special-purpose processor disposed on a semiconductor chip, etc.) to perform certain functions. Alternatively, these functions may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the functions, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components.

One or more modules, components, or elements described throughout this document, such as the ones shown within or associated with the on-demand profiling infrastructure 206 of profiling mechanism 200 of FIG. 2, may include hardware, software, and/or a combination thereof. In a case where a module includes software, the software data, instructions, and/or configuration may be provided via an article of manufacture by a machine/electronic device/hardware. An article of manufacture may include a machine accessible/readable medium having content to provide instructions, data, etc. The content may result in an electronic device, for example, a filer, a disk, or a disk controller as described herein, performing various operations or executions described. A machine accessible medium includes any mechanism that provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information/content in a form accessible by a machine (e.g., computing device, electronic device, electronic system/subsystem, etc.). For example, a machine accessible medium includes recordable/non-recordable media (e.g., read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, etc.), as well as electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), etc. The machine accessible medium may further include an electronic device having code loaded on a storage that may be executed when the electronic device is in operation. Thus, delivering an electronic device with such code may be understood as providing the article of manufacture with such content described above. Furthermore, storing code on a database or other memory location and offering the code for download over a communication medium via a propagated signal may be understood as providing the article of manufacture with such content described above. The code may also be downloaded from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of data signals embodied in a propagation medium (e.g., via a communication link (e.g., a network connection)).

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a computing system 1100. Computing system 1100 may be used for implementing one or more embodiments of the present invention and for executing program code stored by an article of manufacture. It is important to recognize that the computing system 1100 represents merely of various computing system architectures that can be used for the same purposes. The applicable article of manufacture may include one or more fixed components (such as hard disk drive 1102 or memory 1106) and/or various movable components, such as compact disk (CD) ROM 1104, a compact disc, a magnetic tape, and the like. To execute the program code, typically instructions of the program code are loaded into RAM 1106. Then, processing core 1108 executes the instructions. A processing core may include one or more processors and a memory controller function. A virtual machine or “interpreter” (e.g., JVM) may run on top of the processing core (architecturally speaking) to convert abstract code (e.g., Java bytecode) into instructions that are understandable to the specific processor(s) of processing core 1108. Computing system 1100 further includes network interface 1110 and bus 1112 to connect to other systems via a network and to have various components communicate with each other, respectively.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a client/server network system 1200 employing an on-demand profiling infrastructure 1218. As illustrated, network 1208 links server 1210 with client systems 1202-1206. Server 1210 includes programming data processing system suitable for implementing apparatus, programs, and/or methods in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention. Server 1210 includes processor 1212 and memory 1214. Server 1210 provides a core operating environment for one or more runtime systems (e.g., VM 1216) at memory 1214 to process user requests. Memory 1214 may include a shared memory area that is accessible by multiple operating system processes executing in server 1210. For example, VM 1216 may include an enterprise server (e.g., a J2EE-compatible server or node, Web Application Server developed by SAP AG, WebSphere Application Server developed by IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., and the like). The enterprise server at VM 1216 may host the on-demand profiling infrastructure 1218. Memory 1214 can be used to store an operating system, a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack for communicating over network 1208, and machine executable instructions executed by processor 1212. In some embodiments, server 1210 may include multiple processors, each of which can be used to execute machine executable instructions.

Client systems 1202-1206 may execute multiple application or application interfaces. Each instance or application or application interface may constitute a user session. Each user session may generate one or more requests to be processed by server 1210. The requests may include instructions or code to be executed on a runtime system, such as VM 1216, on server 1210, such as the requests made via the on-demand profiling infrastructure 1218 and its components and modules as described throughout this document.

In addition to what is described herein, various modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments and implementations of the invention without departing from their scope. Therefore, the illustrations and examples herein should be construed in an illustrative, and not a restrictive sense. The scope of the invention should be measured solely by reference to the claims that follow. 

1. A method comprising: determining ages of objects in a garbage collection heap at a first virtual machine at a server by detecting a number of garbage collections each object has survived; associating an age to each object according to the determined ages; grouping the objects in age ranges, wherein the age ranges correspond to the determined ages; and communicating the age ranges to a second virtual machine at a client.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the objects in the garbage collection heap, the garbage collection heap including a Java heap.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the grouping of the objects in the age ranges comprises: placing the objects in the ages ranges in an order corresponding to the determined ages; and moving the objects from a first age range to a second age range according to changes in the determined ages.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting dead objects of the objects in the garbage collection heap.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising removing the dead objects from the heap.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: allocating new objects to the heap; and placing the new objects in the heap in order of the allocation.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the server comprises a Java application server having a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) engine, the J2EE engine having the first virtual machine, the first virtual machine including a first Java virtual machine.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second virtual machine comprises a second Java virtual machine.
 9. A system comprising: a server having a first virtual machine, the first virtual machine having a profiling infrastructure, the profiling infrastructure to determine ages of objects in a garbage collection heap at a first virtual machine at a server by detecting a number of garbage collections each object has survived, associate an age to each object according to the determined ages, group the objects in age ranges, wherein the age ranges correspond to the determined ages, and communicate the age ranges to a second virtual machine at a client; and a client coupled with the server, the client having a second virtual machine to receive the age ranges from the first virtual machine at the server.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the profiling infrastructure is further to access the objects in the garbage collection heap, the garbage collection heap including a Java heap.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the profiling infrastructure is further to: place the objects in the ages ranges in an order corresponding to the determined ages; and move the objects from a first age range to a second age range according to changes in the determined ages.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the first virtual machine includes a garbage collector to detect dead objects of the objects in the garbage collection heap.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the garbage collector is to remove the dead objects from the heap.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the first virtual machine includes memory management to: allocate new objects to the heap; and place the new objects in the heap in order of the allocation.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein the server comprises a Java application server having a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) engine, the J2EE engine having the first virtual machine, the first virtual machine including a first Java virtual machine.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein the second virtual machine comprises a second Java virtual machine.
 17. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed, cause the machine to: determine ages of objects in a garbage collection heap at a first virtual machine at a server by detecting a number of garbage collections each object has survived; associate an age to each object according to the determined ages; group the objects in age ranges, wherein the age ranges correspond to the determined ages; and communicate the age ranges to a second virtual machine at a client.
 18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed, further cause the machine to access the objects in the garbage collection heap, the garbage collection heap including a Java heap.
 19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed, further cause the machine to: place the objects in the ages ranges in an order corresponding to the determined ages; and move the objects from a first age range to a second age range according to changes in the determined ages.
 20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed, further cause the machine to detect dead objects of the objects in the garbage collection heap. 